In the first year of Yuan Tianli (1328), Zhu Yuanzhang was born in Zhonglizhi Dongxiang (Zhaoying Village, Taiping Township, Xuyi County, Sizhou in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhaofu Village, Lingji Township, Xuyi County, Sizhou Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhaofu Community, Mingguang Street Office, Mingguang City, Anhui Province) A poor peasant family. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang is the most hated corruption among the emperors of all dynasties, and he has always been jealous of corruption.
The great leader *** once said: "Zhu Yuanzhang is the leader of the peasant uprising, which should be affirmed." Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption "is an important aspect that should be affirmed". In the history of China's feudal dynasties for more than 2,000 years, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had the greatest determination, the strongest strength, the most measures, and the most severe punishment against corruption.
Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1. Promote honesty and prevent corruption
Source: Film and television works.
In the first month of the twenty-eighth year of Yuan Zhizheng (1368 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang, the king of Wu, ascended the throne in Yingtian (now Nanjing), with the country name Daming and the year name Hongwu. In that year, there was a major drought, and the people of Lebanon lived in hardship. However, the dignitaries and nobles in the capital were extremely poor and luxurious, dressed gorgeously, built mansions, and lived a luxurious life every day. The wind of peace and luxury is mostly the cause of the loss of the country, and Zhu Yuanzhang is very dissatisfied with this and worried. He profoundly realized: "The people of mourning think about law and order, and they are hungry and thirsty for food. After some in-depth thinking, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to choose Queen Ma's birthday celebration to advocate honesty and anti-corruption, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military to come to celebrate her birthday, and deliberately put out coarse dishes and light rice banquets, so as to warn civil and military officials, stay away from extravagance, and be thrifty. This banquet was not set up in the Taihe Hall, but arranged in an extremely simple hall. On the day of the celebration, there will be no large-scale singing and dancing events. Zhu Yuanzhang just set up more than a dozen tables and waited for the arrival of hundreds of civil and military officials. After all the civil and military officials were seated, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the food to be served. The first dish is stir-fried radish, the second dish is stir-fried leeks, the third is two large bowls of green vegetables, and the last dish is a very ordinary green onion tofu soup with no drinks. At first, the officials didn't know what was going on, and they stared at each other with big eyes, very puzzled and puzzled. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the time had arrived, so he walked to the middle of the ministers and explained that the first dish was fried radish, radish, and the medicine of all kinds of flavors, and the folk proverb said that "radish is on the street, and there is no trade in pharmacies";The second dish is fried leeks, leeks are vigorous, people often say that "leeks are green and green, long-term stability and people's hearts";Then there are two large bowls of green vegetables, which is compared to the official incorruptibility, "the two bowls of green vegetables are as fragrant, and the two sleeves are breezy and good";The soup at the end means "shallots and tofu are green and white, fair and honest like the sun and the moon". Everyone quickly understood Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions and expressed their willingness to listen to the emperor's teachings. So Zhu Yuanzhang announced in public: "Thrift is the heirloom of the ancients, and it is the first priority in governing the country today." Qing and other guests will be invited to banquets in the future, at most, they can only 'four dishes and one soup', this queen's birthday banquet is an example, if anyone disobeys, they will be severely punished!Since then, the rule of "four dishes and one soup" has spread from the court to the people, and has become the standard of people's hospitality. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was suggested that the state banquet "four dishes and one soup" came from this and is still the content of clean government advocacy. Advocating thrift and hospitality, he himself is leading by example: three meals a day and more vegetables, and the decoration of the car is changed from gold and silver to copperAlthough the original Ma is the queen, she often wears washed clothes, and she is reluctant to discard them until they fadeThe inner prisoner wore new boots and walked in the rain, and was reprimanded with a rod;Seeing that the officials of the dynasty were dressed brightly and spent 500 yuan, he reprimanded: "500 yuan is the annual expense of a farmer's family, and you actually spend money on one clothes, and you are so arrogant and extravagant, isn't it tyrannical!.""It is not to be done in the future. Thrift and honesty reflect Zhu Yuanzhang's foresight that anti-corruption must first prevent corruption.
Second, the creation of words to prohibit corruption
In a civilized society, accounts are mainly recorded in writing. Since there are written records, people are using traditional Chinese characters such as ", one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand, trillion, etc., and some simple symbols created by themselves to keep accounts, this method of bookkeeping is simple and practical, but the biggest disadvantage is that it is too simple, easy to be exploited by bad people, and the accounts are easily altered and added. Many ** filthy officials who are good at drilling camps have an opportunity to take advantage of, such as changing "one" to "two, three, six, seven, ten", "two" to "three, four, five", "two, three" to "five", "ten" to "thousand", and so on. In the process of revenue and expenditure activities, the local government has made less income and more expenditure, and tampered with the account books in the reimbursement account books, so as to embezzle public property and enrich their own pockets, especially in the case of scribbled handwriting, it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity from the false. Zhu Yuanzhang deeply felt that it is far from enough to deal with corruption by severely punishing criminals, and it is necessary to start from the source, and prevention is also an important part of the anti-corruption procedure. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang specially created new words for anti-corruption, and invented the numbers with a capital letter: "One, two, three, four, Wu, Lu, Qi, 捌, Jiu, Shi, Bai, Qian." Although these Chinese characters are cumbersome and cumbersome to write, they can effectively prevent the numbers from being altered and added, and avoid being exploited by the ** filthy officials and embezzling the property of the court and the government. Zhu Yuanzhang's "capitalized" numbers invented for anti-corruption are still used today. Until there is no better method of handwriting, these capitalized numbers will continue to be used in the settlement of accounts reimbursement transactions in the future.
3. Recognize emptiness and eliminate corruption
To recognize emptiness is to recognize empty imprints. What is an empty seal?It refers to a blank letter of introduction that does not write the letterhead and the reason, but is stamped with the official seal, which was called an "empty seal" in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty stipulated that at the end of each year, Fuzhou and counties in the world would check the local money and grain accounts, that is, the numbers of fields, population, taxes, and forced labor should be checked accurately, and they would be reported in account books, which was a major event at the end of the year. After checking the county, the account book was made and submitted to the political envoy department (formerly Zhongshu Province) for verification, and finally sent to the household department for verification. The Ministry of Household is equivalent to the sum of the powers of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Food, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Forestry, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and is responsible for the management of the state's money, grain, and property.
In the Ming Dynasty, it took a long time for the various political secretaries to go back and forth to the household department to take the school money and food, and to reimburse the account books. If the household department considers that the account books are inaccurate and does not reimburse, it will be rejected. Then the political envoy will have to refill the reimbursement book. After the re-filling is completed, the reimbursement account book should be stamped with the official seal of the yamen. The secretary of the political department in the remote area went to the household department to take the school money and food, but the figure was not appropriate, and it took several months to go back and forth to stamp the official seal of the yamen, and the task could not be completed on time. Therefore, all localities took countermeasures, using empty seals, bringing one or several blank documents stamped with the official seal of the yamen, that is, blank reimbursement account books to the household department to test the school money and food, the numbers are not correct, and they are refilled, and the official seal can represent the yamen, which is convenient and trouble-free, and there is no need to delay time back and forth, and no one knows whether it is accurate or not, and to put it bluntly, the empty seal is a fraud.
The figures of money and grain correspond to the figures of household registration and taxation, and are the basis for the tax and finance of the imperial court. The reported figures do not meet the requirements of the Ministry of Households, and the matter is changed on the spot, so what is the basis for the people's endowment, and how to collect the finances of the imperial court?Obviously, the act of empty printing reimbursement has violated the objective facts of the local area and must be dealt with. In some places, the fraud is too lame, and it will take two or three months to re-check, and some will report it again in two or three days, and there will be traitors among them. Although no one reported Zhu Yuanzhang, it was soon discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang. In the eighth year of Hongwu (1375 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang visited the household department and saw a place ** holding an account book and settling money valley with the official. When he saw that the blank account book was stamped with the official seal, he asked why the blank account book was used for settlement and where was the proof of settlementThe magistrates and magistrates explained that the clerks (equivalent to the accountants of today) had to keep blank account books stamped with official seals in advance because of the long distances they had to make, and if they were rejected by the household department, they filled them out at any time. The blank account book is stamped with a riding seal, and the use can not be changed, this practice is ** in the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not explicitly prohibit it, and the household department acquiesced in it, which has become a common practice. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and felt that this practice was intolerable, so he issued an edict to severely punish all those who used the empty seal, and all those who were the chief seals would be executed, and all the officials and others involved in the empty seal case would be punished with a hundred rods, and the border land would be sent to the army. Many people were implicated in the empty seal case, and all those who used the empty seal were not spared. In the Ming Dynasty, the wind of deception and deception was effectively controlled.
Fourth, the rule of law and corruption
It is not enough to fight corruption by relying entirely on imperial power, and it is necessary to legislate and fight corruption in accordance with the law. Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption legislation is relatively comprehensive. The "Da Ming Law" promulgated by him stipulates: "There are six kinds of stolen goods: prison guards, ordinary people stealing, stealing, perverting the law, not stolen the law, and sitting on the stolen goods." "Whoever perverts the law, the sentencing standard is very strict," and those who receive money and pervert the law shall always be hanged with 70 rods, plus one class for every five strokes, to eighty strokes;Whoever receives wealth without perverting the law shall always have sixty rods under him, and one grade for every five strokes, until he reaches one hundred and twenty rods and one hundred, and flows three thousand miles;The prison guards stole money, grain, and goods from the warehouse, regardless of the head and the subordinates, and punished the crime of stolen goods, and tattooed the words 'stealing official money' on their right forearm, and consistently cut off the rod from 80 to 40 strokes. "Whoever is corrupt and perverts the law**, they will all be sent to the north to fill the army. There is also a special chapter on "Receiving Stolen Goods", which is detailed and rigorous, and the punishment is harsh and cruel. Subsequently, laws such as the "Great Message", the "Continuation of the Great Message" and the "Three Articles of the Great Message" were promulgated one after another, so that there are laws to follow in the fight against corruption. In order to warn and warn, Zhu Yuanzhang also took the eternal "Great Message" personally produced as an anti-corruption textbook, and raised a mandatory in-depth anti-corruption concept from top to bottom, and implemented the content of "Great Message" among every ** and the people, making it a household name and known to everyone. The so-called "Great Message" is actually a compilation of cases with a strong smell of blood. Zhu Yuanzhang compiled the major corruption cases and important cases punished over the years into a book, participated in a large number of exhortations and warnings, and announced to the world, "All officials, people, people, people, etc., every household has this book." Throughout the Ming Dynasty, from the court to the locality, from the market to the village, every household must have a set of "Great Message" on the main hall, and all the common people in the world must use all their leisure time to warm Xi up the "Great Message". In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also successively issued the "Iron List Text", "Zishi General Training", "Records of the Ministers' Precepts" and "Zhizhi Records", bitterly admonishing and teaching the subjects that loyalty to the emperor is the duty of the officials and the people, and that those who deceive the emperor can only take the blame for themselves, and they will be infamous through the ages. It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang has good intentions. All this constitutes the only super-strong legal net on the behavior of officials in Chinese history. We can say that in terms of the importance of the law, all dynasties, it seems difficult to find a second emperor comparable to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne at the beginning of the establishment of discipline and law as the primary task of governing the world, he believes that only in this way can it play the role of the outline and the program, with the law can effectively prevent and govern corruption. In order to make the alarm bell of the world's officials ring for a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated the "Brief Record of Awakening Greed" in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392 AD): "For a while, obey the order and fear the law, purify oneself and love the people, and take the decree as the order, and the rule of officials will change." Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's strict requirements, everyone in the Ming Dynasty was afraid of the criminal law, kept themselves clean, and did not dare to act rashly.
Fifth, heavy punishment for corruption
Heavy punishment to control corruption is a major characteristic of Zhu Yuanzhang. The laws he promulgated were effectively enforced, and the punishments he used were extremely harsh and cruel. Many ** were subjected to cruel punishments such as Ling Chi, waist beheading, castration, hook intestines, finger chopping, hand cutting, foot chopping, tendon picking, etc., and Gao Qi, the first poet of the Ming Dynasty, was beheaded by Zhu Yuanzhang in eight sections. Many of the corporal punishments that had been abolished in the Han Dynasty were reused, and some punishments that were not available in the previous generation were also enacted, which were completely new inventions. The most appalling punishment is the original punishment of "peeling the skin and grass" that has just been promulgated and implemented in the Hongwu period: on the third day of the ninth lunar month in the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380 AD), Zhu Liangzu, the founder of the country, and his son Zhu Xian were escorted to Zhu Yuanzhang for framing and killing the county commander Daotong of Panyu County, Guangzhou (now Panyu District, Guangzhou City). Subsequently, the Guangzhou bullies and local tyrants and gentry who were escorted to Beijing and had colluded with Zhu Liang's grandfather and son were all executed. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang took into account that Zhu Liangzu had major military exploits during his lifetime, left him a whole corpse, buried him with the gift of a marquis, and personally wrote an "epitaph" for him. As for Zhu Xian and other bullies who were all "skinned and grassed", Zhu Xian's skin was hung in the Guangzhou Mansion, and the rest were hung above the market to set an example. The case of Zhu Liangzu set a precedent for the anti-corruption case of the Ming Dynasty. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that all officials with an amount of more than 60 taels should be skinned in a special local skinning place "Leather Field Temple" next to the local yamen after the head of the behead, and after the skin was peeled off, it was filled with wheat straw and placed next to the desks of the yamen of various government offices, so that the officials could see it every day, shocking, always vigilant, and daring to bend the law for bribes, and the end was in front of them. These tortures did have a great deterrent effect on **, forming the Ming Dynasty's rule of the Ming Dynasty, and continuing this innocent wind for more than 100 years!At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the founding hero, the Liangguo Gong Lan Yu had thousands of fake sons and Zhuang slaves, forcibly occupied Dongchang Mintian, beat the imperial history of the trial, sold illegal salt, and was sentenced to stripping the skin and grass, Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered his peeling of the grass to be sent to the various political envoys, and the local **, with blue jade as a warning. Because the daughter of Lanyu is the princess of Shu, Zhu Chun, the king of Shu, preserved the skin of Lanyu. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhang Xianzhong occupied Chengdu, he saw a statue on the Duanli Gatehouse, wearing the prince's costume, ** and hands and feet are human flesh. In Guo Heng's case, there was a very low-level management warehouse**, and he was successively severely tortured and punished by digging out his knees, breaking his hamstrings, tattooing on his body, and tattooing on his face. In addition, those who chopped their feet and hands were also severely punished at that time. There is also a type of torture called "washing", which is to tie the criminal to an iron bed, pour hot water on his body, and then use an iron brush to brush off his flesh layer by layer until it becomes a white bone, which is extremely terrifying. Zhu Yuanzhang had his own considerations for the reason for the heavy punishment and corruption, and he said to the imperial grandson: "I rule the troubled times, and the punishment has to be heavy. "However, it should be noted here that all the torture carried out by Zhu Yuanzhang was not aimed at the people of Limin, but only against the bureaucracy, and against all the ** filthy officials among the bureaucracy. Although cruel, the people of Li not only do not hate it, but many of them have a supportive attitude.
9. Specialized anti-corruption
In order to strengthen the anti-corruption efforts, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang decided to set up a special anti-corruption agency - the Imperial Gongwei Division, directly under the emperor, specifically responsible for the investigation and arrest of ** corrupt officials, and then gradually evolved into the "Jinyi Guard", which became a tool of the eunuch dictatorship of the Ming Dynasty. It was originally a pro-army guarding the palace and in charge of the emperor's entry and exit ceremonial guard. In order to strengthen the rule of **, Zhu Yuanzhang expanded the scope of Jinyiwei's power and gave him special powers, so that he could also be in charge of prisons, patrols, investigations, arrest of thieves and traitors, and monitor civil and military officials. The highest commander is the commander, often filled by meritorious officials and relatives, and there are official positions such as Tongzhi and Servant, and there is an official school under it, which is in charge of investigation. The Zhenfu Division to which Jinyiwei belongs is divided into two departments, the North Town, the Fusi, and the Imperial Prison, which directly takes orders and acts, and the punishment is particularly harsh. Jinyiwei killed the ministers of civil and military affairs, suppressed the people everywhere, weaved prisons, and arrested many people. The tracking and supervision of the Jinyi Wei organization is everywhere, some in the morning and evening, day and night, and all the ** talk about the change of Jin. In order to fight corruption, Zhu Yuanzhang even started a spy politics and let the spies supervise the imperial court. Once, when Song Lian was in college, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him if he had drunk at home, who the guests were, and how many dishes he served, Song Lian answered truthfully, and Zhu Yuanzhang said with satisfaction: "Aiqing, you didn't deceive me." After finishing speaking, he took out a banquet seat map drawn by Jinyi Wei in the surveillance and showed it to Song Lian, which scared Song Lian into a cold sweat. Jinhua 70-year-old Confucian Qian Zai was conscripted to the National History Museum to repair the book, due to old age and weakness, mental fatigue, one day sighed and said: "The four drums are knocking up and dressing, and it is too late to see at noon." When will you be happy in the countryside, and sleep until the food in the world is cooked. The next day, the Wenhua Hall gave a banquet, and Zhu Yuanzhang said to Qian Zai: "You made a good poem yesterday, but I don't dislike it, how about changing it to a sad word?"Qian Jae hurriedly kowtowed in fright to apologize. Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I will let you go today, so that you can sleep soundly." "It was allowed to retire in the tenth year of Hongwu. It can be seen that the spy organization is pervasive and has played a great role in influencing the ** and the people. Not only that, but he even did not hesitate to let the eunuchs also participate in the anti-corruption campaign. The eunuch is the emperor's last secret**, the eunuch is not lustful, has no family, no children, one person eats enough for the whole family and is not hungry, there are no worries, only loyal to the emperor alone, and the anti-corruption is clean and thorough. Specializing in anti-corruption is an important means of Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption.
10. Thoroughly punish corruption
Zhu Yuanzhang has always hated the ** filthy officials, and whenever there is a corruption case, he will definitely follow the vine, investigate it layer by layer, and kill them all. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385 AD), all localities went to Beijing to "make a pilgrimage assessment", that is, to meet the emperor, and at the same time to inspect his political performance, make comments, and determine the merits and inferiors. On the ninth day of the first lunar month, the Ministry of Officials announced that there were 4,117 political secretaries, judges, and pilgrimage officials from prefectures, prefectures, and counties, and 435 of them were evaluated for their political achievements. Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely dissatisfied. At this time, the Guo Huan** incident was exposed, which led to Zhu Yuanzhang taking drastic measures and setting off a storm of corruption throughout the country. Guo Huan is the head of the household department, which is equivalent to the current deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance and other powerful departments. Guo Huan's case was later included in the "Great Message": first, there were several prefectures in Taiping, Zhenjiang, and Guangde, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered half of the money and grain in Guantian to be reduced, but these places were not put into storage, and half of the money and grain that were not reduced were all swallowed by Guo Huan. Second, Guo Huan accepted the autumn grain from western Zhejiang, which should be 4.5 million stones, but in fact only 600,000 stone was collected, and some banknotes were collected, which together with these grains were only more than 2 million quintals, and more than 2 million quintals were privately divided by Guo Huan and others. The other is to set up a clever personality and increase taxes. The direct ** figure is 7 million stones, plus all the various discounts and discounts, a total of 24 million stones. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a thorough investigation in all areas of the imperial court and localities. Where to find out, where to punish, no one is missed. Zhao Mao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Wang Huidi, and others involved in this case, were abandoned on the streets, hundreds of people below the level of the six or so servants were executed, the ** of the household department and the yamen of the political secretary were basically killed, and the local ** was implicated in the prison and killed tens of thousands of people. There are 13 political envoys, 141 prefectures, 192 prefectures, 1,013 counties, and more than 1,300 ** in the country. The Lan Yu case, and the strains were introduced, from the princess to the civil and military **, about 20,000 people were killed. For corrupt officials, Zhu Yuanzhang would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let go of one. He repeatedly warned the ministers that they should make those ** corrupt elements feel like they are in a thorn bush, unable to move an inch, even if they are lucky enough to get out of this thorn bush, they will end up with no skin. Some scholars estimate that in the 31 years that Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, about 100,000 to 150,000 heads landed, making him the emperor who killed the most in China's feudal society for more than 2,000 years. At that time, few of the 13 political envoys in the country were able to complete their terms, and most of them were killed halfway. Punishing corruption is a major feature of Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption campaign.
Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption, it has certain merits and reference roles. Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption efforts were unprecedented, the measures were extensive and strict, and the means were tragic, but the effect was still not ideal, and Zhu Yuanzhang finally did not stop the corruption in the Ming Dynasty. In the 18th year of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign as emperor, he once uttered the following sigh: Since I ascended the throne, the Fagu ordained official, Bu Liehuayi, was not expected to be promoted, and he was loyal and loyal, and he was appointed for a long time, and all of them were treacherous and corrupt ("A Little History of the Ming Dynasty" Volume 2). Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand why the people he promoted and reused, after being officials for a long time, became traitors and greedy people. Lao Ziyun: "Official" is not afraid of death, so why should he be afraid of death?The real reason is that the centralized system of feudal society is a hotbed of corruption, the social system is backward, and no matter how advanced the anti-corruption concept is, it will not be able to achieve the desired effect. Of course Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand.
From May 30 to June 1, 2016, the first draft was published in the Office of the Cultural and Historical Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
From June 20 to 24, 2016, the second draft was held in the Office of the Cultural and Historical Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
On June 29, 2016, the third draft was published in the Office of the Cultural and Historical Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
About the Author
Gong Faqin, pen name Yalu, Gong Hui. He is a special researcher of the Anhui Provincial Museum of Culture and History, a member of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association, a member of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association, a member of the Chinese Prose, Poetry, Reportage, and Chinese Poetry Society, and a member of the Anhui Writers Association and Critics Association. He has published 23 books such as the prose collection "Hometown Homesickness", the poetry collection "Understatement", and the literary criticism collection "Guan Jian Confucius", and his works have been selected into more than 30 anthologies such as "Chinese Poetry Yearbook", and won more than 10 awards such as the Anhui Golden Harvest Literature Award, the Anhui Social Science Popular Reading Award, the Chinese Prose Annual Conference Award, the Qu Yuan Poetry Award, and the Mingguang ** Literature Award.